The Count: The Accumulated Abuse of Roethlisberger

Quarterbacks Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger all were selected in the first round of the 2004 NFL draft. All have led their teams to multiple playoff appearances and been selected to the Pro Bowl. But which young quarterback has the brightest career ahead of him?

Getty Images

Ben Roethlisberger’s career total of 192 sacks doesn’t even include postseason takedowns such as in the latest Super Bowl.

Roethlisberger, a starter since early in his rookie year, has thrown for the most yards and touchdowns of the group and won the most games (and two Super Bowls, to boot). But he’s also been sacked 192 times, nearly as many as Manning (120) and Rivers (77) combined. That may not bode well for his longevity.

In an interesting bit of analysis on the Pro Football Reference blog, Jason Lisk identifies a group of 40 quarterbacks since 1970 who had thrown at least 1,000 passes by age 26 and had gained six or more yards per attempt through age 26. Lisk then divides the group into four categories in terms of sack rate, and finds that the higher the sack rate, the more likely the quarterback was to retire at a young age.

“Some of these high sack guys may not have been good enough to continue starting or making a roster well into their 30s anyway,” Lisk writes. “However, there are a few cautionary tales for Roethlisberger’s future. Neil Lomax, … Ken O’Brien, and Bert Jones were all very good quarterbacks at age 26, all had a sack percentage of 8.9% or higher, and all were done starting full-time before they turned 32 years old.”

Commenters caution that the high sack rate may be an indicator of other failings in some of these QBs, rather than the cause of their early retirement, and that one really hard sack is probably worse than a few hundred garden-variety tackles.

SPORTS, THE JOURNAL WAY

Be sure to check your Daily Fix all week long. The Fix's daily rundown of the best sportswriting on the Web is joined by features such as The Count, a look at the most revealing sports stats, as well as regular live reports of major sports events. Tell us what you think of the Fix at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com.